hard up, destitute, suffer, perplexed, cornered
窮 centers on being trapped in a tight, inescapable situation: cornered, destitute, or suffering with no way out. The sense of being hard up or perplexed follows naturally from that same idea of extreme constraint.
窮 combines 穴 (hole, cavity) with 躬 (body), suggesting a body pressed into a tight space. The idea of being cornered or in dire straits comes from this image of physical constraint.
A body 躬 crammed into a hole 穴 is stuck and suffering. Picture someone wedged into a tiny cave, unable to move, cornered and destitute.
For キュウ, imagine a person trapped in the hole crying out 'Q!' as a desperate signal for help: Q -> キュウ, and the body is cornered with no escape.
dilemma; predicament
poverty; need; destitution
narrow; tight; cramped
distress; wretched condition
to be at a loss; to be puzzled; to be perplexed; to be at one's wit's end; to be in a dilemma; to not know what to (do, say, etc)
poverty; destitution; privation; indigence; penury
great poverty
cornered rat
respiratory distress syndrome
the poor; the needy; the destitute
hardships and privations
as eternal as heaven and earth
acute respiratory distress syndrome; ARDS
spring staple shortage (before the harvest of rice, wheat, barley, etc.)
eternity; infinitude; immortality
moto perpetuo; perpetual motion
rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus); Korean rose
person in need; person facing economic hardship
to be hard pressed; to be at a loss
necessity is the mother of invention; there is always some way out of a difficulty if you really look for one